Abandoned Entertainment - Second Spin - Denver, CO

A few months before Laura and I moved away from Colorado, one of my favorite retail shops permanently closed. Meaning I lost another of my favorite hang outs and places to waste several hours of time. Second Spin finished their 20+ year run on South Colorado Blvd. in Denver, in January 2018.

Here’s a brief history/summary of Second Spin (established in 1996), from their defunct page on Yelp:

SecondSpin.com has been online since August, 1996. The corporate offices and warehouse are located at 2230 E. Carson St. in Carson, California. In June, 1998, the first SecondSpin.com retail store opened in Sherman Oaks, California. Since then, stores have opened in Costa Mesa, California, Santa Monica, California, and the 12,000 sq. ft. superstore in Denver, Colorado. 

That former “superstore”, at 1485 S Colorado Blvd. Ste 100, Denver, CO 80222

Products on the SecondSpin.com site come from three sources: the internet, the retail stores and from brokers around the country. This gives SecondSpin.com a much wider variety of music & movies than other used sites. Strict quality control keeps the defect rate to less than 1%, so everything is 100% guaranteed.

A rather grandiose claim, but I’ll have to admit that I never had any problems with any of the used media I bought at Second Spin.

As this photo posted to Foursquare on August 13, 2013, shows, there was always plenty of media to sort through at Second Spin. I'm kind of a fan of the "Get Used" t-shirt...

Dating back to my first CD in the early 1990's, I've always loved looking around used entertainment stores. Going from Video Games to CD's to DVD's and BluRays to an endangered species over the course of 30+ years. Some oversaturation of the market is to blame, but it's simply a matter of people getting their entertainment in different ways today. 

Even 20 years ago, it would be hard to fathom that you wouldn't have a physical object containing whatever you were listening to or watching, by 2020 (and earlier).

When I moved to Colorado in 1996, I was excited to see that Cheapo Discs had a small presence out here. Prior to moving, I'd spent a lot of time at the Columbia Heights, MN, Cheapo, as well as their other locations in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Between 1996 and 2003, I bought a lot of CD's and DVD's from the South Colorado Blvd. location (Just 7 blocks south of SecondSpin).

All three Colorado Cheapo Discs were closed by 2004.

The South Colorado Blvd store became Amish Furniture, and was connected to the Criterion Shopping Center. Which was demolished in 2017, in favor of a large complex of new apartments. That are built in a really odd shape, to allow for parcels of land that weren't included in the project. Including a gas station/car wash, that had closed many years earlier, is still sitting decaying next to big shiny new apartments.  

That story will appear here eventually.

Many a Kenyon night included hanging out at Tower Records, formerly a satellite store in the Cherry Creek Mall. The fact that Tower was open until midnight, seven days a week, 365 days a year, made it a holiday tradition. 10:30pm on X-Mess day? Thanksgiving? Fourth of July? I'm probably hanging out at Tower Records. With a few other people who also chose to celebrate the holidays here. 

Tower didn't have much for used CD's or movies, but their selection of new stuff was very solid. In addition, Tower sold a lot of the more fringy magazines, videos and books, including a fairly diverse selection of zines. It was always easy to waste a lot of time here.

As a chain, Tower closed all US stores by 2008. They still maintain a small online presence.

The Denver Tower Records closed in 2006. 

I miss Tower Records.

I made this collage saluting various Tower Records purchases over the years, for the 20th Anniversary issue of Wasted Quarter, in 2013.

Not very far to the southeast of the Cherry Creek Mall and Tower Records, was Second Spin. If you were approaching from the north on Colorado Blvd., you could park in the small lot directly off the street. But I was always driving up from the south end of town, so my route was...

Left turn onto Louisiana, right into the nearly hidden driveway behind Loaf 'n Jug, and on into the difficult parking lot.

Simple!

Since most people would look at a story about a recently closed used CD and DVD shop, and say whatever... I say exactly! So in the spirit of applying a whatever to this format, I present the...

Top 25 DVD's (or other) I bought at Second Spin, between 2013 and 2017.

#25 - Miss March

Covered up for your protection because it's so controversial!

Hooray for the teenage sex comedy! This style of movie has really died off since it's heyday in the 1980's. And I kind of miss it. Years back, I listened to a podcast that listed off some of their favorite teenage sex comedies of all time. (Miss March did not get mentioned.) But it led me to a stretch of time where I picked up a few that I remembered the podcast covering, when I'd find them used at which ever store I would be wandering in.

How else would Fast Food, The Last American Virgin and the all time classic, Porky's (In honor of my dad), end up in my DVD collection?

Oh my god that is so dangerous.

I only bought this DVD because of its link to The Whitest Kids U Know, being in love with their sketch show that ran on IFC for five seasons. (Only three of which were put out on DVD, infuriating for completists. At least all of it is on YouTube.) But this movie was all sorts of not good. My friend Trav warned me going in. Although he did say to check out Timmy and Darren's auditions in the bonus stuff. He was right. They were the best things on this disc.

Here's some Whitest Kids that is far superior!

So If you've got around 87 minutes to spare, you should watch The Whitest Kids U Know presents: The Civil War on Drugs. It's worth your time.

Moving on...

The first three seasons did come out on DVD, but none of them were purchased from...

The front of the store from the south parking lot.

A better view of that rather difficult parking lot. The driveway entrance from Louisiana Avenue would be on the right side, three single rows of diagonal parking maximized the limited room. I usually parked facing Loaf 'n Jug, often going in to buy a refreshing cold beverage after searching DVD racks. Or use the toilet since Second Spin didn't have one for public use.

Other businesses in this complex, January 2014.

Plato even had a closet here.

Isn't that right dumbass?

#24 - The Best of Beavis & Butthead - Innocence Lost, Chicks N’ Stuff

Speaking of completistism, there are a few cartoons on the prior Time Life DVD issues that were not included in the far superior Mike Judge Collection, so of course... I picked up 5 of those Time Life disks at Second Spin, but am just choosing this one to represent (I like the title: Chicks n' Stuff), but am sure that I'm still missing some.

And there's still close to 100 Beavis cartoons that were never released on DVD.

Doubt I'll ever see the complete collection.

Damat...

Over the years, I found that I'd taken a whole lot of pictures of the Second Spin building, during my Colorado Blvd. travels. They're all pretty similar, so I'm just going to use them as transitions. 

This transition is from August 2015!

After DVD shopping, I often weaved the residential streets back to Englewood.

Most days, that included a stop at Sub Center for a sammich, before going home. 

I heard they closed the shop a few years ago. Guess it's too late to redeem those free bags of chips chips... Too bad, I could really go for one of their Turkey and Bacon subs, which was my favorite. Another piece of Englewood I miss dearly.

April 22, 2015. Yelp photo from the east entrance.

My first visit to Second Spin came in February 2013. I don't remember who told me about the place, but I'd been aware of it for a while. Finally that morning I decided to put together a bag full of stuff I wanted to sell and brought it in.  

Thinking it was a good idea, I took the printed out receipt from that media exchange and scotch taped it in my notebook. What I didn't realize was the thermal paper would quickly lose all traces of letters, numbers and words, where it touched the tape. This was almost instant as you'll notice I stopped "laminating" it when the text disappeared.

And their paper roll needs changing.

I somewhat managed to salvage the header!

So the official record of my first Second Spin transaction was almost completely wiped out. At least I had taken the time to write out a good set of notes on that day in the notebook, just in case I wanted them for some future project. (Which made me realize just how much more free time I had 10 years ago, vs today...) 

No, I’m not typing all of this out. 

But I will pick a few out things from all those tiny, scribbley words, and spread them throughout this story.

More than half of this notebook page is dedicated to that late morning at Second Spin, with the rest of it split between some memories of Colorado Blvd. over the last 20 years. There were quite a few words dedicated to notes about Cheapo Discs, down the street. Amish Furniture was still open in their space then. Wrapped up the page with notes about a visit to Mike's Sports Cards, later on this day, just a few months before he closed his store for good. 

When I get around to writing out any of these stories, my notes here will come in handy. 

At the top of the page, there is this line: "There is something about 20 minutes of live television dedicated to Hulk Hogan's feelings that makes cleaning the cat box seem appropriate." 

I can still endorse that sentiment.

2015.04.22 - Yelp

Whatever...

#23 - PS3 - Midway Arcade Origins

Second Spin carried a wide selection of used video games, dating as far back to a few Atari 2600 cartridges on a shelf. Nothing even close to rare among them. By 2013, my video game playing time had dwindled down to pretty much only MLB The Show on PS3. Every once in a while though, I just want to veg out to some classic 1980's arcade games. 

Xenophobe got the most play, but this compilation is absolutely stacked!

Transition!

August 30, 2015.

Driving South on Colorado Blvd. The very short parking lot directly off the street. I never once parked here. 

February 17, 2013.

DVD's that I wasn't keen on keeping were stored in 2 boxes above the washer & dryer, in the old apartment. Between those 2 boxes, I kept half and brought in the other half. I wrote out some of the highlights from what I sold. (But didn't write out the amount I was given for them. Guess that's why I taped in the receipt...)

#22 - Comedians of Comedy Live

I absolutely love the Comedians of Comedy mini-series from about 15 years ago, on Comedy Central. This is just a single live show, featuring a whole bunch of comedians. Most of which didn’t appear in the series. The problem with running a show like that, everyone there gets probably less than 10 minutes, before the next one is up. So it's greatest hits time. Great for what I paid for it, but not the most replay value.

That is an incredible roster of talent on one show!

Transition!

October 18, 2015.

Driving North on Colorado Blvd. I just pointed and clicked the camera as I climbed the hill. Somehow, it focused on the building, with the traffic blurring perfectly, centered between the two taller buildings behind it. In low light even! This was an early morning after we'd just returned from Minnesota. Usually Second Spin was a place I tended to go to when Laura was on vacation in MN, without me. She wasn’t as big a fan of these places.

#21 - Invader Zim Vol. 3

Such a great cartoon! 

I picked up Volumes 1 and 2 way back in 2003, at the Riverdale Best Buy. Back when Best Buy had a massive selection of DVD's. No used discs though. Either way, Volume 3 evaded me for nearly another decade before I finally acquired it.

X-Mess Transition!

2016.12.25 - Driving North on Colorado Blvd.

X-Mess morning Photo Tours were always a favorite tradition of mine every year. I'd be ready to hit the road just after sunrise, maximizing decent lighting with the least amount of traffic on the road. Since I was working graveyard shift those days, I was used to being awake through the night before. 

Now that I’m working second shift, I don’t wake up early on holidays to drive around Minneapolis. 

But I really should…

#20 - Space Ghost Vol. 2

I'd forgotten all about Space Ghost until I was listening to a podcast that a couple of my friends put out, in 2015. They started talking about that show, and other stuff they liked on television back in the late 1990’s. Not long after that, I decided that I needed the Space Ghost DVD’s. Second Spin was a big help there.

Unpopular opinion: Much of what has come out under the Adult Swim banner has been less about trying out a new take on old concepts, and more about trying very hard to appear edgy and weird, yet staying in that same lane. I don't know. 

Yelling at clouds.

Like the ones above Courtyards by Marriott above Second Spin, on June 11, 2017. Picked up several birfday and X-Mess gifts for Laura, here. Usually a Beatles DVD or something specific that I knew she'd like and didn't already have. And definitely wouldn’t buy for herself on her own.

February 17, 2013.

This year, I bought her a copy of The Beatles Yellow Submarine for her birfday. There were no used DVD copies available, so I had a choice of all the different new released DVD versions of the movie. I decided to splurge on the uber-deluxe multi-disc mega commemorative collectors package edition box set. She'd enjoy the additional 13 hours of content, in addition to the feature cartoon.

She loved it!

Giggled for 45 minutes straight, then passed out.

I'd never seen the movie before, but wanted to and enjoyed it. Not much of a Beatles fan, that's her thing. I appreciate bits and pieces of their catalog, and full respect for their deserved place in rock 'n roll history, but a lot of their music gets old really quick with me. 

#19 - Saturday Night Live 25th Anniversary

I'm also a sucker for these retrospective type releases. I do remember this airing in prime time on NBC, back in the fall of 2000. May have even set the VCR to record when it first aired, because it seemed pretty familiar.

Yup... That's about what you'd expect from a DVD like this...

Around the time I picked this up, I was also grabbing those SNL compilation DVD's focused on one particular cast member. Most of them were less than $3, and that's a good value for the replayability on the discs. Especially when you consider it wasn't available for streaming then. 

I'm old...

Tradesmart Keychain tag

A lot of the SNL DVD's of the late 1990's/early 2000's era, were picked up at Tradesmart. Located inside of a sectioned off former KMart in Littleton, CO. The exact same concept as Second Spin, but with more inventory inside an even larger store. Until they closed in October 2016...

Oh yeah! There was also Cashbacks in Englewood! I forgot all about them! They were on my routinely stop and browse list. Until they closed in January 2016...

Early X-Mess morning 2017.

Driving North on Colorado Blvd. My only picture of Second Spin wearing its "Going Out Of Business" colors. I'd already been in to pay my final respects by this point, buying some nicely discounted stuff as well. 

Wish I would have taken any interior pictures before the doors were locked for the last time. Just so I din’t have to resort to stealing them from Googles, Yelp and Foursquare.

Second Spin closed for good in January 2018.

I do not know the exact date.

#18 - Robot Chicken Season 6

I picked up several seasons of Robot Chicken at Second Spin, so this one was chosen as a representative. For some reason, Robot Chicken DVD's would get lent out, but not often returned. And this is one series where I did buy replacements when they were lost to friend.

Back in 2004, a friend asked me I'd seen this show. Knowing that I dabbled in collecting collectible toys, a stop motion animation show featuring old toys would be of particular interest to me. You know, you're right!

The best part of this series is it being set up in tiny easily digestible pieces. Some of the toy animations are simple jokes lasting a mere few seconds. The longest pieces are rarely over 2 minutes, and it doesn't really follow any sort of plot. So even if a joke fails flat (and a lot do), it's not stinking up the screen past it's welcome. 

I really liked the format of this show.

February 17, 2018.

Driving south down Colorado Blvd. early this morning, I pulled into the empty parking lot of the unnamed shopping center that used to provide shelter to Second Spin.

Whose sign has been spun and flipped upside-down, in the frame.

If you're dyslexic, you believe the store is still open.

#17 - Undergrads Season 1

Never would have heard of this show if it wasn't for the late night reruns on Comedy Central, between 1998-2001. It wasn't airing every single night, all night, like South Park on Comedy Central these days. That channel used to alternate different programs they'd marathon each night. Undergrads was one of several shows given the redundancy treatment.

I was in my early-mid 20's during that time, with a good chunk of it attending Overpriced Art School. Which was in no way similar to the stereotypical college life portrayed here, it grew on me. 

Every so often, I'll throw these in the DVD player for a few hours of background noise. Remembering back to when watching this show was capping off a day of waking at 6am to be to class (across town) by 8am, done with that at noon. Then do whatever until 5pm when you have to spend the next 6 hours giving rides to pizza. After cleaning up what was left behind, that's still a good 2-3 hours at Dubb's! Probably the Englewood Denny's to Super Bird it all off. Catch a couple episodes of this and sleep for 2 and a half hours, then start all over again.

Not every day of the week, I wasn't a savage!

So yeah, that was my post high school "college" life. Nothing like this show.

Cal was the funniest, in my opinion.

November 18, 2017. (From the Googles.) 

I wasn’t too sad when I found out that Second Spin was shutting down the Denver location. It wouldn’t come for another six plus months, but I already knew that Laura and I would be moving away from Colorado. So while I would miss the store, I wouldn’t be around to miss it if it were still open.

February 17, 2018.

East Side (small) parking lot. Can't quite make it out, but there appears to be a label scar predating the rectangular Second Spin sign, now removed. Unless it's just residue from those signs. I couldn't even find a definitive date for when this store opened, let alone any mention of what would have been here before it.

#16 - Johnny Dangerously

This was one of those $1 DVD's. The disc itself is just fine, but the case is a little messed.

At least the seller chose to use a non-yellowing tape!

Johnny Dangerously was one of my favorite 1980's comedy movies. This was to replace a VHS copy of Johnny Dangerously, that I bought at a video rental store in Winona, MN, that is still open today!

My last VCR died in 2009. 

You may have noticed there's not a lot of full length movies on my DVD list. I'm just not into watching movies. I rarely want to commit the time, energy and focus on a 90 or 120 or 180 minute long anything. Give me an hour, that's okay. Better yet, give me a half hour and let me decide how deep I want to go, while providing ample opt-out moments. Trying to focus on something on a screen for that long makes me fall asleep.

February 17, 2018.

Driving down from the east lot to the south parking area. 

My shadow taking the picture.

It did an acceptable job.

#15 - Strangers With Candy Season 3

Seasons 1 and 2 came from Twist & Shout, years earlier. This was another Comedy Central show placed in heavy rotation, back in the day. This show seemed to be pretty often during all the late nights hanging at Kenyon with Comedy Central on in the background, of whatever I was doing with whoever was there.

Even though he (and I) loved South Park, my friend Dwayne would often say this show would go too far. Granted, his rules of good taste were a little different than mine, but I could see his argument. Quite often this show teetered on the edge of going too far, but that's what made it memorable to me. So implausible, it was almost a live action cartoon. But the fact that it was live action and not a cartoon, was likely his line to have crossed.

Looking inside the east windows at the south corner, through the vinyl and up towards the listening station.

Silhouette of me taking a picture across the length of the store, to the far back corner. The white areas of the far walls used to be lined with DVD shelves. The centers of the rooms were a lot of audio CD's, more DVD's and whatever pop culture items appealed with a hot character on a high markup impulse buy. 

Can't blame them, it only makes sense!

#14 - Pee Wee Herman Show

Another VHS replacement. An old Minneapolis suburban video rental store that I wish I could remember the name of, went out of business in the early 1990's, and sold me a used VHS copy of Mr. Herman's 1981 HBO Special.It was replaced in 1997, by a new copy from Tower Records. I still have it, but I can't watch it.

Now I can watch the DVD!

I went through a Pee Wee Herman phase a few years ago, and got the entire series of Pee Wee's Playhouse on DVD for X-Mess. This was inspired by the IFC channel airing marathons over a holiday weekend. I'd forgotten about it since I bought the season 1 DVD, back in 2004. Subsequently loaning it out and not getting back. 

I don't even remember who was the recipient of most of the things that have gone missing over the years. 

February 17, 2018.

Up until Second Spin closed, I didn't realize they fell under the umbrella of F.Y.E., when I saw them mentioned on that sign on the east door. I also didn't know that F.Y.E. stood for For Your Entertainment. I even didn't know they had a store Colorado Mills. Only having gone there once in 2009.

It’s still there if you want to go right now!

#13 - The State Complete Series

This was one of things I had to own, given its “significance”. Late night mid-1990's MTV, with this and Beavis, and that irritating dating show featuring Jenny McCarthy, obnoxiously mugging for the camera for 30 annoying minutes, every night. The same guy who warned me about Miss March warned me that after he watched the entire series, it wasn't very good. It wasn't bad. It was just boring.

I didn't find it as boring as he did. But I also didn't find it very funny, or actively bad. It was just there. After watching it, I remembered seeing some of this stuff in 1995 and thinking the same way about it then. Several soft chuckles, one or two serious laughs and that was about it. Some of the other projects this cast worked on, I've really liked. I'll always be a huge fan of Reno 911!, and I liked what I saw of Viva Variety. While I don't have any specific thoughts about Stella, I picked up the series of DVD a few years ago, and plan on watching it at some point.

Given the way the interior of Second Spin was set up, I'd really like to know what was here before it. And did they use this same store set up? With the different looking front end, and the angled archways between the two seemingly separate segments. I will probably never know.

That front area was the home to some of the more elaborate pop culture displays. Somewhat illustrated by this photo found on the Googles, dated July 25, 2017. There's a whole lot of WWE merch on display here. Impulse pop culture stuff that's fun to look at, but ridiculously overpriced due to licensing and high profit margins. More importantly, this is just a look at how full of awesome Second Spin once was.

Especially when held in contrast to this...

Looking across the store, from the furthest northeast window.

The door with the holes around it was the main entrance for the south parking lot. I don’t recall the holes being there when the store was open.

February 17, 2013.

Today, I parted with a big mess of mid 2000's documentaries: Weapons of Mass Deception, Unconstitutional, Uncovered: The War In Iraq, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, 24 Hours on Craigslist and Left of the Dial. These were all from a phase I went through between 2005-2007, where I was watching a bunch of documentaries about current events. I don't if I was trying to appear smart or what that was about. Some of them were never watched as I became too disgusted with life to view them. So that phase ended around 2007.

Now it was a good idea to just get rid of them. Some brought back very little, but a few of them commanded a few bucks each. Showing there was still at least some interest in them. I remember Weapons of Mass Deception being a pretty good movie. May have to look that up online some day, and see how it holds up to everything that has taken place in the 18 years since.

Or maybe I wont...

Here's some more licensed discount nonsense from the Googles, on July 25, 2017!

#12 - Insomniac Uncensored Vol. 1

Late night Comedy Central reruns strike again! I loved episodes of Insomniac, late at night before I went to sleep. As someone that worked graveyard shifts for long stretches of my life, dating all the way back to 1993, this show really hit home with me. It was must watch if I found out it was on.

Half hour episodes of clips of Dave Attell talking to people doing whatever they're doing, in whatever city he was in that week, all under the theme of it taking place between 10pm and sunrise. Segments with Attell hanging out with people at their jobs were always my favorite. Since I knew where'd be most nights of the week, it was fun to see what my fellow brothers in misery were doing to earn a living.

I also have Volume 2. Unfortunately, there never was a Volume 3.

February 17, 2018.

Inside the southeast corner windows, looking north this time.

Wish the perspective could have lined up better for this next picture...

November 13, 2017.

The Googles offers up the vinyl section, under the shadows of "Store Closing" banners. 

How could they allow such sadness in a happy place?

Even it being vacant brings no joy, since I liked what used to be here so much...

Only sad... 

No happy...

#11 - Ren & Stimpy Season 1

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Yeah, someone borrowed this from me long ago... So (gladly) had to re-buy it.

In 2001, a co-worker and I were talking about Ren & Stimpy, instead of distilling PDF's from Pagemaker. He mentioned still having 3 VHS tapes full of Ren & Stimpy episodes, that he’d recorded off MTV back in the early 1990's. So early in fact, they pre-dated the MTV logo watermark in the corner of the screen. He said that all the episodes still had the commercials, since he recorded them while he was living in Florida and working on a boat. 

That makes them even more valuable!

Coincidentally, I had bought a dual deck VCR for easier videotape copying. He offered to let me make copies of his Ren & Stimpy tapes, if I agreed to return them. Absolutely! I spent that next weekend copying and watching Ren & Stimpy cartoons, for the first time in many years, chock full of nostalgia dripping MTV promos and national advertising. The real prize of these tapes being all of the cheaply produced local south Florida ads!

I don't know if I still have the copies of these tapes left, but I may still have them in some box that hasn't been unpacked for at least 4 moves. Just in case I'd ever need to find a way to go mining for a used car in 1992...

In Miami...

If I'm remembering correctly, this area of Second Spin was used as a listening station. with the countered cut-out window providing access with the cashier area, on the other side. I was rarely in this part of the store, as it was mostly stocked with vinyl. 

Yeah, I get it. Just no interest here.

Opposite side of that window, the cashier area was elevated above the lighter colored cement floor. You paid for your stuff in the middle of this area, then once you walked through the "I Didn't Steal Anything" forcefield, they'd hand you your purchase, just beyond the microwave radiating bars.

One of them once handed me this DVD of...

#10 - The Muppet Show Season 1

Another brief entertainment phase I went through about 7 years ago, was watching a lot of The Muppet Show. I was bored with TV, and doing a lot of stuff sorting in the cramped living room of Greenwood Point. So I was on the lookout for new DVD TV sets to keep my brain from turning to mush while I sorted folders of papers, boxes of books and magazines and tens of thousands of baseball cards.

This was a syndication favorite from childhood, that I probably hadn't seen in at least 30 years. Once again, Second Spin delivered in my time of need. 

February 17, 2018.

Just beyond the good pillar tagging, would be the stairs down to the parking lot.

The red car is mine, and I'm still driving it today. 

South entrance door. Still not sure why the glass blocks have holes in them. 

Once entering here, you'd be right in the heart of the audio CD's laid out over dual rows of CD racks. To your left would be the start of the DVD shelves, lining the walls all the way around to the back. 

But to your right was the buying desk. I did sell a few bags of media here over the years. Audio CD’s I no longer wanted, DVD’s of movies or television that weren’t worth watching or video games that never should have been purchased.

Here's another excerpt from that day's notebook scribblings. Exactly five years before the day I took these final pictures. That's just weird timing folks… 

February 17, 2013.

Chubby goth chick's estimate of 15 minutes to sort through and price my items, turned into nearly 2 hours. Looking through the bins for desired items was kind of a let down, no Negativland, the only CD’s of Mike Patton projects had Epic on them, nothing from The Residents and the standup comedy bin was barren. Unless you're looking for Jeff Dunham, Dane Cook or Kat Williams.

Well, I wasn't and never will be. 

After they looked through what you brought in, Second Spin would give you an offer. If you wanted cash, I'm pretty sure they'd mail you a check after a certain amount of time. 2 weeks sounds about right. You also had the option of getting an immediate payment in the form of a Gift Card, that only worked at this store. It also expired after a certain amount of time. Pretty sure it was a year, but it may have been 90 days.

Squaring up my used DVD purchases, considering the gift card, with Matt at Register 3. I found out that many of the DVD's I was picking up were only $1/each! This was due to some in store promotion, where different price levels would drop down when more items are purchased. It made sense, even though I didn't understand it completely. 

Either way, I expected to pay a few bucks at the register once everything was tabulated, given the rough estimate I kept going in my head. However, with the total Matt quoted me, I would still have over $20 left on my gift card!

Which I never used.

#9 - SCTV Best of the Early Years

My first exposure to SCTV came in 5th grade, when the future Mr. Rux showed me some episodes he'd recorded over a weekend. For a period of time in the 1980's, the Minneapolis/St. Paul PBS station used to play three 30 minutes edited episodes of SCTV every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, from 10:30pm to midnight. I was hooked instantly.

The release of SCTV on DVD made me so excited in 2003, that I bought each of the the first four volumes as soon as they hit the shelves. 

But the final set didn't come my way until 2014, when I grabbed it from Second Spin.

Not only was this needed to appease my completist needs, but this volume had the long desired 1984/Big Brother sketches. 

Big Brother is watching you watching Telescreen.

Second Spin wasn’t nearly as great for music as it was DVD's. They carried new releases, but only the most popular stuff. The used inventory was dependent on whatever people brought in (including myself). In most cases, that would be the mostly Top 40 music. The same stuff that anyone who wanted it, already owned it. If you were looking for any specific artist or album, you were much better off going to Twist & Shout.

About 10 years ago, I was consulting with my Doktor about music. We both shared the opinion that we were pretty much only interested in artists that we listened to up until about age 30. They're the ones that will stick with you and you'll continue to follow. After you turn 30, you're pretty much set in what your musical tastes are, and you're not very likely to put in the effort to find new music. 

I know I have much better things to do these days.

No matter how much I may wish it was still 1994, and I was still 19.

#8 - My So Called Life Complete Series

Because when it was still 1994, and I was 19, there was this.

And when it was 2014, and I was 39. I needed to revisit that year. 

It was a fun place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

By the mid 2010’s, a great deal of the second hand inventory was pure garbage. After years of mediocre entertainment being pumped out, everyone who bought it was now dumping it. Used stores just had too much inventory of the stuff no one wanted. You really had to dig to find treasure, and it would be picked over fairly quick.

But there was treasure if you were patient and could find it.

February 17, 2013.

I once spent $2.00 to own a copy of Morgan Spurlock's "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold". Second Spin just gave me $1.88 to buy it from me. I almost broke even! And that movie was terrible! But you can't argue its effectiveness. I think of every time I see that stupid POM drink in stores. 

November 13, 2017.

More from the Googles pictures of the Second Spin Store Closing Sale.

#7 - The Sarah Silverman Program - Season 2 Vol. 2

Sarah Silverman is a rather polarizing comedian, but I've never understood the hate. Seems that I know more people that can't stand her, than actually like her. Well, I'm a fan... Always felt that it was too bad her Comedy Central show had such a short run. Only 32 episodes, lasting from 2007-2010, with the television writers strike taking up a big chunk of that.

Between here and Tradesmart, I picked up the entire series on DVD.

It still holds up.

February 17, 2018.

The far back (north) wall, minus the DVD shelves that used to sit between the support beams. The left side of those shelves held the Action movies, with TV series on the shelves in the last two support beam zones. If you were looking more to your left, the west wall had shelves with Drama and Horror movies. Some of the smaller categories (like Foreign, Documentary and Sports) wrapped around the southwest corner. Which was really hard to get a picture of, from the outside.

December 22, 2017. (From the Googles.) 

Guess there were more DVD’s on the main flor than I remembered. For some reason I thought all of the floors was audio CD’s. Well, this shows that I wasn’t right...

#6 - Saturday Night Live - Lost and Found: SNL in the 80’s

When held up against the SNL 25th Anniversary disc earlier, there is no comparison. This has far superior content and is probably the best DVD compilation Saturday Night Live has ever put out.  

Instead of just being a pile of sketches, this one focused on what was going on behind the scenes. I didn't start watching SNL regularly until the fall of 1984, which had a cast that I loved. But the stuff between 1980 and the spring of 1984, when I'd catch them in reruns or syndication, was pretty bad.

Unless Eddie Murphy was in it.

Trying to remember what was on that brown wall, back by the emergency exit. I don't think there were DVD's there. Anime? Video Games? Headphones and/or audio/video equipment? Gallows for shoplifters? The Satellite of Love?

#5 - MST3K - Mitchell

My my my my my my my 'partment!

Almost hate that this is my favorite episode of MST3K. It's such a cop out, everyone knows the Joel leaving and Mike arriving episode. Like saying your favorite band's favorite album is their Greatest Hits comp. So damn you for choosing one of the funniest movie commentaries for this episode...

Another shot of where the front check out counter used to be. Along with the "No Exit" doors at the front of the store. Along with a reflection my the zipper on my jacket.  

February 17, 2013.

Some of the DVD's they didn't want and chose to not buy: Comedy Central Presents The Daily Show: Indecision 2004, Coffee & Cigarettes, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 1 and Uncle Goddamn.

I couldn't blame them for turning any of these down. Tradesmart also turned down The Daily Show comp. Eventually I decided to keep it. Time capsule type stuff. They already had one copy of It's Always Sunny for every citizen of Philadelphia in stock. Coffee & Cigarettes is too pretentious to own and Uncle Goddamn is just too stupid to own.

(Sad Poverty Drunksploitation.)

Standing somewhat by the side entrance, looking towards the front register. 

#4 - Kurt Cobain - Montage of Heck

Shortly after reading of its release, I stopped in to Second Spin to see if they had it (and anything else they may have). Had it not been in stock, Twist & Shout wasn't too far away. Luckily it was displayed with the new releases right where I came in. I ended up spending enough time looking around here, so I skipped going to Twist & Shout altogether.

This is all cool and I agree with what they wrote and this was an excellent movie. 

But the last bullet point under special features stands out.

"1 of 4 postcards..."

Okay...

"Collect all four to assemble..." 

What? I'm supposed to buy multiple copies of Montage of Heck DVD's and/or BluRays in hopes of completing a set? Like baseball cards? Did anyone seriously try to find and put together a 4 piece jigsaw puzzle? This is Generation X you're marketing to. That's a really stupid gimmick.

Awesome documentary though...

February 17, 2018.

Taken from the parking spot I chose, behind the Loaf 'n Jug. A similar space to the one I'd chosen when I stopped in here. That was if there were open spaces. Parking was tight here at times. I tended to only come here shortly after opening, on weekday mornings or later weekend nights, to avoid as many people as possible. Even around the store's 10pm closing, it was still pretty busy on Saturday nights.

Really liked that angled staircase up from the lot, leading to the doors of Second Spin. I’d quite often finish or start a cigarette while on them. 

I miss smoking almost as much as I miss Colorado…

#3 - Reno 911! Complete Series

Laura was visiting Minnesota in the winter of 2016, and I found this at Second Spin for $9. I'd seen much of this series over the years on Comedy Central, through random reruns and occasional marathons, but had never started the series from the beginning. It was fun to see the story arcs play out in order, instead of just what I'd happen to see on the TV, when I’d catch the show. 

Of course new seasons have been recorded and aired on several different channels over the last few years, so this is no longer the complete series. But this is the series I know. I've been seeing some of the newer stuff lately, but I'm watching that all out of order and chopped up. 

Somehow I doubt a DVD set covered the rest of the series will come out so I can catch up...

Well, it's a label scar, just not a good one...

The east side exterior, not taken from the inside of my car.

#2 - American: The Bill Hicks Story

Another of the DVD's I knew I wanted to own, but didn't get around to right away. Well worth the wait. Since Hicks died so long ago, it was amazing to see and hear all of this "new" content for the first time. I thought I'd heard a lot of Hicks' recordings, but there was stuff here that was completely new to me.

Quite often I'll see or read something and it'll make me think, if Bill Hicks were still alive today, what would he say about this? Knowing how disgusted he felt about the state of the world in the early 1990's, suicide would've probably taken him if cancer didn't... Still, one could only imagine Bill Hicks on: The Clinton blowjob, 911, Bush II and the Iraq war, Mitch McConnell, or the former guy suggesting that we just suspend the constitution and install him in power for life.

Yeah, Bill Hicks wouldn't have stuck around in this world.

Just like Second Spin didn’t stick around in this world.

April 15, 2015. (From the Yelp!)

Today's youth will never know what it's like to hang out in places like this. When all of your entertainment options become something that has no physical form, you have nothing to feel nostalgic about. Yes, you can still have a movie or a song, but it no longer comes in any sort of packaging. There’s no more flipping through racks and shelves to view your options. Now there’s only scrolling, and it’s not a thing that requires more than a single finger.

And you can do that wherever you are. You don’t have to go to a specific place to look for cool stuff anymore. Your bedroom now has access to anything you could ever want. There isn’t any more worries about going somewhere to buy something and it being out of stock. You no longer have to put in any effort to find stuff that is cool. No matter how you define cool, no matter what that cool thing might be.

Sure, all of this technology is incredible, but as I’ve said many times, I can’t be convinced that we are better off for it.

Yelling at clouds over.

It's time for number 1...

#1 - The Residents - Theory of Obscurity

If some of your favorite music could best be described as “weird ass art shit”, you’re probably a fan of the Residents. I have been for over 25 years, after buying my first Residents CD, just down the road at Cheapo Discs. That was in the Spring of 1997, and this documentary BluRay came out in 2015. So I waited quite a while for a definitive video summary of their bizarre career.

Documentary itself lasts over 2 hours, and the bevy of bonus features made this an incredible value at the almost $30 I paid for it. It was a new release, and a BluRay, so it was bound to be expensive. But what else are you going to do. Not like you’ll find anything by The Residents at the WalMarts. 

Second Spin even placed it lovingly inside one of their plastic bags!

Which I still have.

March 31, 2018.

This is the last photo I took of the former Second Spin building. A green dumpster out front to likely catch all of interior walls and anything else Second Spin left behind.

Second Spin said the property owners wanted to go in a different direction with the space, so they lost the lease. That could be their own spin on whatever really happened. Maybe they couldn't afford it, maybe the owners wanted them out. Either way, I’m sure some renovations were made to the space, and it was put on the market at a much higher rate. 

And given the overall health of the market for their particular product, anything other than how this store ended, would have just been postponing the inevitable, anyways.

Today the space is used by Urban Mattress. 

Thanks, Googles.

April 8, 2020.

Second Spin posted this announcement on their website and facebook page.

And with that, the company was no more.

Sigh...

******

Last summer, I read the sad news that the Perkins restaurant on South Colorado Blvd. and Buchtel Ave had permanently closed.

Thanks to the Crazy One, I may or may not still owe this Perkins for a Supreme Burger, back in 1999.

(Photo taken August 23, 2015) 

The last Perkins in Denver closed on July 25, 2022. The restaurant will be demolished, along with the LaQuinta motel behind it, to make room for a new apartment tower just off the I-25 ramp. I wish I would have been there to photograph this...

Developers paid $20 million for the land that Perkins and LaQuinta sit on.

But I'm sure the rent will be affordable...